Mankind’s role in it all (4)

And a lot is said indeed about mankind’s exalted status in the Zohar. We’re told, for example, that “When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He … created man over everything… for man sustains the world” (1, p. 205b); that “The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to make man superior to all creatures so that he might be as unique in this world as He is in the realms above (Zohar Chadash, p. 10a, Midrash Ne’alam)”; and that “Everything in the world came into being for man’s sake alone, and everything continues to exist for his sake alone…. When man was created, everything was set right, above and below, and everything was incorporated in him” (3, p. 48a).

Ar”i and the other Kabbalists spoke at great length about just how primal mankind is to it all, and filled in the details about just where in man this occurs (both literally and as representative of where it occurs in the Sephira and Partzuf system) and how exactly man affects the heavens and the earth. But let’s see next just what Ramchal said elsewhere about this before we record his remarks in Klach.

We’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a k’sivva v’chassima tovah and to take a break till the end of the Yom Tov season.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

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Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

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